People hold placards during a rally in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 15, 2017. Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) launched on Thursday a "Justice March" from capital Ankara to Istanbul, in a bid to protest the arrest of its lawmaker Enis Berberoglu for espionage charges. (Xinhua/Cenk Baklan)
ANKARA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) launched on Thursday a "Justice March" from capital Ankara to Istanbul, in a bid to protest the arrest of its lawmaker Enis Berberoglu for espionage charges.
CHP head Kemal Kilicdaroglu accompanied by many party officials and supporters staged a protest in downtown Ankara's Guven Park with a banner in his hands read in "Justice."
"We want justice, until democracy and justice come to this country," said Kilicdaroglu in Guven Park where strict security measures were taken by the police.
"We do not want MPs and journalist thrown into prison. We are living in a dictatorial regime, we want people to live in peace in our country," said the opposition leader who had flowers in one of his hands and was accompanied by his wife and son.
He called on "everyone loving democracy and justice whatever his political beliefs" to participate in his march, which he underlined is not "under the leadership of any political party."
Nearly 10,000 people are joining the march, according to local channel CNNTurk. Numerous TV cameras and reporters are following the event, unprecedented in Turkish political history.
It will need 25 days to complete the 450 km from Ankara to Istanbul.
"Our march has started. We are walking for our democracy and freedom," Utku Cakirozer, the CHP deputy, told Xinhua.
Another demonstration was ongoing in Istanbul Macka Park.
Berberoglu is the first member of the main opposition party who has been jailed. Since the failed coup of July 2016, several MPs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have been sentenced and imprisoned for charges linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Berberoglu is more of a journalist than a politician. He was elected as a MP of CHP two years ago; before that, he had a long career working for some prominent titles, including editor-in-chief of Hurriyet.
The case against him started two years ago, when opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet published images and footage showing weapons allegedly being smuggled into Syria from Turkey.
The images, which dated back to January 2014, appeared to demonstrate Turkey was far more involved in the Syrian civil war than it was publicly admitting at the time.
Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief of the time Can Dundar and actual Ankara bureau Chief Erdem Gul have been briefly incarcerated last year because of the case.
It was alleged that Berberoglu himself leaked the material to the Cumhuriyet.
The individual cases against them were merged into one last year, fairly common in Turkish judicial procedure.
But on Wednesday, in an unusual move, the cases were separated once again at a hearing of an Istanbul court. Enis Berberoglu was handed a sentence of life imprisonment, reduced to 25 years for mitigating factors, while Erdem Gul and Can Dundar's combined cases will continue to be heard at a yet-to-be-determined date.
Dundar is now in exile in Germany, facing charges of espionage and revealing state secrets.
After the court's decision which was quite unexpected, CHP MPs walked out of the Turkish parliament followed by a harsh statement of Kilicdaroglu, who said "we absolutely do not accept this decision."
"We have battled for democracy, for justice for years. We want justice, democracy and freedom of expression in this country," he stressed.
Senior CHP lawmaker Gursel Tekin told local channel CNNTurk later Wednesday that his party would be launching "democracy protests" in all of Turkey's 81 provinces.
Kilicdaroglu himself gave an interview to the same channel where he announced that he would personally march to Maltese prison in Istanbul, where Berberoglu is currently held.
"I will do this. I will march. One, five or 10 people may come behind me. I will walk until justice is secured in this country," he said.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 68, the leader of CHP since 2010, earned the moniker "Ghandi" because of his tranquil demeanor, as he seems adopting a form of non-violent disobedience like the famous Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi.
On March 12, 1930, Ghandi and a small band of supporters set off on a nearly 500 km march across western India, to protest the British colonial government's salt monopoly, which forbade Indians from producing it.
